One Less
by MidnightRoulette
Summary: Kaye Shepard is from Mindoir, a recently freed slave. The Alliance rejects her and she high tails it to the Citadel to make her own way. She never expects that she'll receive help from an Asari commando or that she'll find a sister: Commander J. Shepard.


Author's Note: Okay so I have the worst attention span when it comes to writing stories. I have a Supernatural and a Young Justice fic in the works, neither of them even close to being finished. Following suit, I decided to write a fic for Mass Effect. For those of you who have read my other stories… I'm sure you can tell that I'm a fan of original characters. Anyways, this is the story of Commander Shepard's younger sister, told in a totally realistic and un-obnoxious way. Commander Shepard will make quite a few—_a lot —_appearances. This is a _story _which means it has _plot. _Some fluff may be included later on, but not unless it advances the story. Anyways, with that in mind, enjoy reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect.

Chapter One: Denied

Fourteen year old Kaye Shepard stood with trepidation as she watched the various citizens at Jump Zero station approach the military recruiter.

She stood awkwardly to the side, but far enough away so that the recruiters couldn't see her. Far enough away so that they couldn't tell she had been sitting there studying them since early this morning.

There was a man in his late twenties and a woman obviously well into her thirties. Kaye was sure that if she approached the woman, she would immediately realize how young she was. Men tended to be more oblivious, Kaye figured, and therefore deduced that approaching the male would be more prudent for her.

The Alliance had been on a heavy recruiting stint for quite some time now. Kaye was hoping that they wouldn't be too overzealous in their background checks of the new recruits. She was counting on the fact that, _maybe,_ she could pass for eighteen. She needed a job, a way off the streets and the Alliance military seemed to be her best option.

It had only been about a month since she had escaped from her slave holder and she wasn't exactly doing well for herself.

Kaye didn't remember much about the Batarian slavers that had raided her home on the human colony of Mindoir. She had been too young—only two years old—to remember the attack. She was ashamed to say that she couldn't even remember her father's face. Her mother's was even a bit blurry in her mind. Everything about Mindoir was a blur, even the slavers.

They had taken her and probably killed her parents. Kaye knew that she had been immediately sold to the Akbar family just after the birth of their third daughter Selma. Kaye had been bought as a playmate for their daughter.

Hisham Akbar was among one of the wealthiest men in the galaxy and at first, it seemed like a dream come true. Kaye was allowed into the family's inner circle and given luxuries that other slaves could only dream about. They fed her, gave her a place to live, and treated her well. Provided that she kept Selma happy of course. Nevertheless, she and Selma became fast friends and they enjoyed their time together.

At the time, Kaye was too young to understand how important it was to stay in the good graces of the Akbars. By the time she had grown completely comfortable around the family, she had no sense of whether or not it was appropriate to act a certain way. Kaye didn't have a sense of where she could push the boundaries and where she couldn't. She was of the opinion that she was practically family.

She recalled the day of Selma's ninth birthday most clearly in her mind.

An amazingly large celebration had been planned for Selma, with everything from elephants to exotic tribal dancers being flown in from across the galaxy. It was normally understood that Kaye would be allowed to attend the party, provided she didn't speak to anyone—not even Selma. The Akbars had wanted to ensure that there was a clear division between Selma and herself.

Kaye was a slave and Selma was practically royalty. No matter how much Selma enjoyed being around Kaye, it was understood by both of the girls that Kaye was of a lower social class. She was to be tolerated until her usefulness had run its course.

Am eleven year old Kaye Shepard had not understood that. During the party, she approached one of the young boys whom had been staring at her from across the room. Kaye hadn't realized that he was the son of a very important Alliance diplomat. She had merely wanted to ask about the necklace he was wearing, it had reminded her of the trip she had taken with Selma to Ilium.

It took a mere ten seconds for the diplomat to spot his son talking to her and he immediately brought this to the attention of the Akbars.

The words _piece of filth _and _garbage_ had been thrown around quite a bit in their descriptions of her.

After that, Kaye was no longer allowed to play with Selma. Instead, she was sent down into the dank and dusty laundry room to work with the rest of the indentured servants. The family—all except for Selma—was quite happy to shun her.

Kaye's fairytale slave owners had disappeared. The Akbars—especially Hisham—were known for being quite abusive to their servants. Kaye was not given any special treatment, despite the fact that Selma still liked the young slave. The two girls had even tried to arrange secret meetings on occasion, but the Akbars had plenty of guards.

If they did happen to arrange a meeting, they were _always_ caught out and it was always Kaye who received the brutal beating as punishment.

Up until one month ago, it was only her affection for Selma that kept her at the Akbars. She knew every single way in and out of their compound and Kaye was certainly smart enough to find a way out.

Up until that day, Selma had never laid a hand on Kaye. She had always tried to keep her out of trouble as best as she could, but Selma was having one of her famous fits that day. Kaye had been charged with bringing Selma her morning tea. It was the same every morning: ginger tea with a lemon on the side.

Unfortunately for Kaye, they had been out of ginger tea and instead brought her chamomile thinking that Selma wouldn't notice. Of course, Selma did notice and she through a fit the likes of which Kaye had never seen. Or, at least, she had never had one of Selma's fits directed at her. Selma angrily chucked the tea cup at Kaye and subsequently slapped her.

At that moment, Kaye made her decision to leave. She had lost the one and only friend she'd ever had and there was no reason to stick around and endure abuse from her as well. She hadn't even seen remorse in Selma's eyes after she had stuck Kaye.

Kaye decided to plan an escape.

She had left that very night with the help of one of Selma's old nannies. The old woman had helped her only out of a desire to spite the family, but Kaye figured that was as good a reason as any. It was also the only opportunity that she might have ever gotten.

After that, she hopped the first transport she could find and ended up on Omega.

There, she slept in the gutters and scrounged around the dumpsters for food. She avoided kidnappings daily. She stayed away from the gangs and the prostitution and the drugs. But things were getting tight. After hanging out in the same dark corner of _Afterlife—_where the ruler of Omega, Aria T'loak spent most of her time—practically every day, a group of mercenaries had taken an interest in her.

It was clear by the look on the men's faces that they had more than friendship or recruitment in mind. It didn't take long before Kaye stole onto the first transport to Jump Zero or Arcturus Station.

Now, fourteen year old Kaye Shepard _still_ slept in the gutters—which were cleaner on Jump Zero, thank God—and scrounged around the dumpsters for food. But she didn't have to avoid kidnappings, gangs, and prostitution, or drugs— illegal ones anyway. Security on the military station was considerably tighter than Omega.

Maybe because there were actually laws and a security force to enforce them. Nevertheless, she still had to watch herself while she was here. Kaye couldn't get away with stealing things the way she had on Omega.

Kaye had been lucky enough to have bought—well stolen, actually—some brand new clothes for this day. She'd even managed to procure a shower with some dishwater from a local diner. The Alliance was obviously going to question her more if she showed up dirt infested and half-starved looking. While the new clothes and dishwater shower fixed the smell, there was no way she could hide the fact that she was scrawny and far too thin.

Even so, Kaye started heading for the recruiters, securing her long brown hair in a low bun to hide the grease and tangled mess. She liked to think it made her look more mature.

The female recruiter was busy talking to a zealous young man obviously just out of high school. "If you're sure about this?" He nodded emphatically. "Well let's step into my office then and we can fill out the paperwork." The woman stood up and gestured for the young man to follow.

_Perfect,_ Kaye almost grinned. The male recruiter was glancing at his paperwork as she approached his desk.

"Yes?" He didn't even look up.

"I'd like to enlist."

* * *

><p>Kaye tried to give her voice a mature tone. She imagined she would sound something like the mother on that extranet show she would always try to catch snippets of.<p>

"You sure?" the man asked, bored, still not looking up.

"Yes sir." Now, the man stood up and finally looked at Kaye. She looked down and glanced at his name tag: Sergeant Frederick Carter.

He started at the sight of her, but recovered quickly. "You sure you're old enough?"

"I'm just out of high school," Kaye lied with a polite smile.

"Right," the sergeant said doubtfully. "Well, I'll just grab the paperwork. There's a short interview process." He disappeared into the woman's office for a brief moment and came out with a short stack of papers.

He slid back into his chair and gestured for Kaye to sit down in the one across from him. His pen was poised above the paper and he glanced at her. "Name?"

"Kayliana Shepard," she answered. Kaye noticed that this man was quite handsome for a military buff. He had a kind face despite the severe buzz cut of his hair and his dark brown eyes. On any other day, in another place, Kaye might have tried to flirt with him.

If only to get close enough to practice her pickpocketing skills. They were still completely hopeless.

"Date of birth?" he asked.

"Wouldn't this go faster if I were to fill these forms out?" Kaye asked, smiling politely.

"Good idea," Sergeant Carter said, sliding the papers and a pen over to her. Kaye grasped them both and immediately started filling in her information.

Most of the information was false, obviously. Her address, year of birth, even her parents' names—she couldn't remember them anyways— all of it was fake. It took her a few minutes to dot her_ t_s and finish the brief questionnaire about her medical history. She slid the papers back to the sergeant, interrupting the drumming of his fingers on the table.

"Kayliana Shepard, eighteen years old, born on the human colony of Mindoir," he paused his reading here to glance over at the young girl.

"Any relation to Commander J. Shepard?" he joked. "She was from Mindoir too, you know."

"I wish," Kaye laughed. "Just a coincidence unfortunately." Having a successful older sister like _the _Commander Shepard certainly would've made her life a whole lot easier.

"Mhmm," he nodded and continued to silently read through her answers. Kaye anxiously fidgeted in her seat, wishing Carter would just finish reading through her answers. "Interesting. Well, I'll need to take your fingerprint, just to confirm identity you understand."

"Of course." Kaye nodded, starting to panic slightly. This was totally going to screw her plan.

_Keep cool, keep cool, _she reminded herself. _Maybe he won't even look at it._

"Place your thumb there," Carter instructed, holding out his Omni-tool to her. Kaye did as she was told and waited anxiously as his Omni-tool processed her identity. His Omni-tool beeped loudly as the information arrived and it flashed red.

_Uh-oh,_ Kaye bit her lip, feeling her heart sink.

"There seems to be a problem Miss Shepard," Carter said, studying her. "Our databases have you listed as a missing person."

"Well sergeant," Kaye began carefully. "If I were missing, I wouldn't be here now would I?"

"Very good point," he mused. "Except this record reports that you've been missing since the attack on Mindoir. When you were two years old."

"It's obviously a mistake," Kaye stuttered. "My parents and I have an apartment on Jump Zero at—"

"Miss Shepard," Sergeant Carter held his hand up. "You're obviously not old enough to enlist. And our database requests that I send any information regarding your whereabouts to a Cynthia Shepard."

Kaye stared at him blankly, deciding that it was time to give up the charade. "That name isn't ringing any bells."

"I have her listed as your grandmother." He sighed, rubbing his face over his hand.

"Look, I know I'm not _quite _old enough to enlist, but can't you overlook that?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't. The Alliance appreciates your enthusiasm however."

"It's just a few years! I really need to—"

"You need to go home kid."

"I don't even know anyone named Cynthia and I _don't_ have a grandmother."

"Look you seem like a nice young girl," Sergeant Carter said, ignoring her pleas. "You don't want to throw your life away by joining the military, now do you? Go home. How about you run on back to your grandmother, okay? I'm sure she's worried sick."

Kaye's face reddened at his patronizing tone. "As far as I know, my entire family is dead. As you pointed out, the Batarians took me when I was two years old. I've never even _heard_ of a Cynthia Shepard."

"Well nevertheless, I'm goanna have to escort you to the orphanage until—"

"Oh God, please no," Kaye groaned. "I'd rather not be someone else's charity case."

Sergeant Carter studied her face, looking for any signs of dishonesty. "In that case, take this." He scribbled something on a piece of paper and slid it over to her. "I won't force you into an Alliance orphanage, but I can't let you leave without assuaging my conscience."

Kaye glanced at the piece of the paper. It was an address for somewhere on Arcturus station. She looked up at Carter, just as the woman and the young man exited the office.

"Ask for Lara," Carter instructed. "She'll help you with whatever you need. Just tell her Sergeant Carter sent you."

Kaye nodded, feeling humiliated as she left the recruiting table. She knew she wasn't _really _going to seek out this Lara woman. She was far too prideful to accept a stranger's help at the moment. After all, her one opportunity of saving herself from poverty was gone.

Now, she was alone.

Author's Note: Oh, by the way. How excited were you guys to see the trailer for Mass Effect 3? I almost jumped out of my seat :)


End file.
